It's startling to me how often bits of Fagen's lyrics turn up in my mind:

"A virus wearing pumps and pearls."

"We'll be eternally free and eternally young."

"The mechanized hum of another world."

Just this morning I had the radio on in the shower and they were talking about the debate. I found myself singing: "See the glory of the royal scam." Other than the Beatles, no one else has insinuated themselves into my subconscious like Becker and Fagen. Did I become a cynical old bastard because of them, or did they just fit my experiences? I guess the answer would be:

I'm not a huge Steely Dan fan; I like the tunes that you'll hear on Classic Rock these days, but I don't own any of their albums. Nonetheless, The Nightfly is one of my desert island CD's. Just wonderful from start to finish.

Thanks for the heads-up, subby, but that's three factual errors in a one-sentence headline:

1. Sunken Condos is explicitly not part of the Nightfly trilogy (which is comprised of The Nightfly, Kamakiriad, and Morph the Cat).2. Sunken Condos isn't upcoming, it's out. Go buy it.3. The article doesn't touch on what, if anything, is upcoming from Steely Dan.

I saw "Steely Dan" (it was Becker backing Fagen on the Kamakiriad tour, but still...) with a free ticket I got for buying gas. It was at an outdoor amphitheater laying in the grass on a cool summer night. Perfect.

zez:I saw "Steely Dan" (it was Becker backing Fagen on the Kamakiriad tour, but still...) with a free ticket I got for buying gas. It was at an outdoor amphitheater laying in the grass on a cool summer night. Perfect.

For some reason that music sounds much better in that environment, not that I don't enjoy the music in other places, but hearing it performed live, outside, on the grass, on a nice summer evening is pure bliss.

I was all of 8 years old when "Hey Nineteen" came on the radio, and for some reason I loved it from the first hearing. The melodica, the beat, the opening hook, the harmonics in the verses, the world-weariness... don't ask me why i responded to all that at a tender young age, but the Dan hit the spot.

there's a cool youtube video of Fagen and Becker playing the multitracks from that session, with interview of the musicians. the bassist is like, "at the time, popping the bass was the new thing but they didn't want that, but......I popped all over that record" and they play it and you hear it.

Michael McDonald I think said he was singing in thirds for his backing vocals, and it was hard as shiat since that chord spacing / interval is uncommon in Western music but it is what Fagen wanted.

rickythepenguin:there's a cool youtube video of Fagen and Becker playing the multitracks from that session, with interview of the musicians. the bassist is like, "at the time, popping the bass was the new thing but they didn't want that, but......I popped all over that record" and they play it and you hear it.

It's part of the "Classic Albums" series (Aja) -- also available streaming on Netflix. They're decent little documentaries. Fagen plays a few of the guitar solos that different players laid down for "Peg," and just dismissively points out that "yeah, that's no good; yeah, that's no good," etc. He's also a hoot in sitting there talking about what some of the lyrics to different songs mean -- "'This is the day of the expanding man' -- self-explanatory, really."

Michael McDonald I think said he was singing in thirds for his backing vocals, and it was hard as shiat since that chord spacing / interval is uncommon in Western music but it is what Fagen wanted.

Had a thrash metal guitarist as my roommate in college. He'd scoff at my Steely Dan records. Then, one month, the featured guitar tablature in his "Guitar" magazine was "Kid Charlemagne" and I told him he should try to learn it. He came back a couple of weeks later and said "those are the sickest chords I've ever seen. I don't even know what the hell they are."

long ago there was one of the grateful dead's "american beuaty" and i know they had bob weir, but i'm not sure if he was with phil lesh or mickey hart, but one other original memebr, and they played a portion of the vocals only to "ripple" and i was like, "GOOD GOD RELEASE THE A CAPPELLA VERSION!" it sounded so perfect.

and i remember Weir playing back his guitar only track on "Sugar Magnolia" and he was wincing, saying, "sorry, the intonation was never quite right on that guitar". gotta find that on youtube.

rickythepenguin:there's a cool youtube video of Fagen and Becker playing the multitracks from that session, with interview of the musicians. the bassist is like, "at the time, popping the bass was the new thing but they didn't want that, but......I popped all over that record" and they play it and you hear it.

Yep. And the bassist mentioned that he'd always make sure to have his back to everyone when they were doing it.

I don't think Fagen "missed" it. He's far too much of a perfectionist. I think he just let it slide because it works.

downstairs:rickythepenguin: there's a cool youtube video of Fagen and Becker playing the multitracks from that session, with interview of the musicians. the bassist is like, "at the time, popping the bass was the new thing but they didn't want that, but......I popped all over that record" and they play it and you hear it.

Yep. And the bassist mentioned that he'd always make sure to have his back to everyone when they were doing it.

I don't think Fagen "missed" it. He's far too much of a perfectionist. I think he just let it slide because it works.

Rick Derringer had an interview in "Guitar Player" ages ago about his sessions for "Show Biz Kids" - apparently he developed the slide lick on his own and came into the studio the next day to show it off. He played it for Fagen, who said: "Again."

So Derringer played it again. And again. And again. Eventually Becker walked over to listen, and he would alternate with Fagen saying "Again" after each repetition of the lick. Derringer said he played it about 200 times before Becker said "That might work."

Of course, they used another lick that Derringer had come up with, one he demoed at a rehearsal just before final recording.

Derringer said he loved working for Becker/Fagen, but they "would drive you farking nuts."